


Southpaw

by mrbarbacarisi



Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: Childhood Memories, Childhood Trauma, Flirting, Fluff, Getting Together, Hands, Light Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-18
Updated: 2017-12-18
Packaged: 2019-02-16 11:46:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13053375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrbarbacarisi/pseuds/mrbarbacarisi
Summary: Sonny spent too much time thinking about Barba's hands. It was an unhealthy obsession with a man who would likely never return his affections. Still, Sonny was fairly certain the prosecutor could add ambidextrous to his list of skills.





	Southpaw

Sonny spent too much time thinking about Barba's hands. It was an unhealthy obsession with a man who would likely never return his affections. Still, Sonny was fairly certain the prosecutor could add ambidextrous to his list of skills. He wrote and signed everything with his right hand. But almost every other task was completed using his left. 

Dialing a phone number, one-handed texting, organizing case files, opening doors, adjusting his tie, operating his coffee machine. All with the left hand.

No one else seemed to notice. No one else was really paying all that much attention to Barba's hands. No one else was really interested in Barba beyond work. 

Sonny was. And Barba's hands were one of his most attractive features. At least that he could plainly see during the work day. So Sonny kept staring.

“Something caught your eye, Detective?” Barba asked one day while they were working together in his office after hours. This had become a common occurrence after Barba started listening to his legal advice — rather than rejecting it out of hand. And it was the man’s hands that had got him in trouble now.

“I, uh, no. Just thinking,” Sonny replied quickly, trying to cover his outright staring. Barba never looked better than when his jacket was off and his shirt sleeves were rolled up. He wasn’t wearing a waistcoat today, but the black and yellow suspenders looked great on him.

“What about?” Barba gently set his pen down on the coffee table and smirked at him. Of course. Sonny was a fool for thinking he would let it go. Was he imagining Barba leaning closer to him on the couch?

“The case. You know, it’s gonna be tough.”

“Uh huh. Sure. You don’t have to lie to me.”

Okay. Sonny definitely wasn’t imagining anything. Barba was _actually_ leaning toward him. A mischievous glint in his eye. 

“I-I’m not.” Sonny stuttered before he could stop himself. Oh God. Barba was flirting with him. He liked him back. Was this even real life? 

“I may not be a detective, but I’m not stupid or blind, Carisi. I see you watching me.”

“You do?”

“Yeah. Look, you don’t ever have to respond or acknowledge that I said this, but I like you. And if you’re interested, I would like to take you out sometime.”

Sonny stared. This was really happening. Barba just asked him out. _Holy shit._ And he wasn’t saying anything.

Before he even knew what he was doing, Sonny found himself closing the gap between them. A second later, he was kissing him. He was kissing _Barba_. Or Rafael. He should probably call him Rafael now.

And Rafael responded eagerly. He brought his hand up and tangled his fingers in Sonny’s hair. The kiss deepened. Sonny forgot how to think.

Some time later, Rafael pulled away and smiled at him. An honest, open smile. “So I take that as a yes, then?”

Sonny nodded vigorously. “Yes. Hundred percent.”

“Want to go somewhere now?”

“I’m good with that.”

Rafael gave him that wide smile again. Not a smirk. Something as close to a grin as Sonny had ever seen on his face. Rafael was truly happy. He could barely believe it.

Later, Sonny realized Rafael had used his left hand to pull him closer. That he always used his left hand. Not his right. It wasn’t _that_ weird — but the more time Sonny spent with Rafael, the more he was reconsidering his ambidextrous theory.

Rafael used his left hand to button up his shirts in the morning and to help Sonny take his off at night. Rafael preferred to use his left hand to touch his lover’s bare chest and tease him. To hold his coffee at work. To comb through Sonny’s hair. His left hand was consistently his preference for any dexterous task. Except writing.

Sonny had a bad feeling about why.

One night, while they lied in bed together, Rafael was brushing his hand back and forth across Sonny’s chest. It was comforting. Sonny couldn’t help but notice it was his left. He finally gathered the courage to ask about it.

“I have a really random question,” he said.

Rafael chuckled. “What is it?”

He swallowed. “Are you left handed?”

He stilled against him. Sonny could sense the heaviness in the air. “You weren’t kidding.”

“I didn’t want to upset you, Rafael. I just noticed some things.”

Rafael lifted his head to meet his eyes. “I’m okay, Sonny. That was just the absolute last thing I expected to come out of your mouth.” He sighed. “What did you notice?”

“You only use your right hand to, well, write. For anything else, you use your left hand. Every time.”

He was silent for a moment, considering. “Sometimes I forget you’re actually good at your job.”

Sonny placed a hand on Rafael’s cheek with a small smile. He was putting his defenses up and Sonny did not want that. “You don’t have to tell me why. I just wanted to know if I was right.”

“You are.” He lowered himself back down onto Sonny’s chest. “I am left handed.”

“Okay.” He ran a hand up and down Rafael’s arm.

“My father forced me to write with the other hand. Said I would turn out stupid or cursed if I didn’t. Mark of the devil or something like that.” He huffed a humorless laugh. “It was probably just another way to control me. He wasn’t a superstitious man.”

Sonny tightened his hold on Rafael. “I’m sorry he did that do you.”

“It’s okay. I made my peace with it a long time ago.”

“You know, left handed people are naturally more creative. So you’ll always be better than me in that area. And we’ve had _a lot_ of left handed presidents. So that’s encouraging if you ever want to run for anything.”

Rafael laughed. A full, body shaking laugh. Genuine mirth. Sonny couldn’t have been more happy in that moment, knowing he had been the cause of the smile on the other man’s face.

“You also have very nice hands,” Sonny continued. “That’s how I noticed in the first place. I couldn’t stop staring.”

Rafael looked up at him, eyes twinkling. “That’s an interesting fetish.”

He shook his head. “I don’t like all hands. Just yours. I think I have a Rafael Barba fetish.”

He chuckled. "Well in that case, I'm pretty sure I have a Sonny Carisi fetish."

"Really?"

"Yeah,” Rafael said softly, settling back against Sonny’s chest.

Sonny placed a kiss to the top of his head. He couldn't believe this was his life. Rafael Barba liked him. A lot. So much that they spent almost every night together. They could barely keep their hands — left _and_ right — off each other. After so much time pining, Sonny now had the man he loved in his bed. In his arms. It was heaven on earth.


End file.
